Anglo-Zionist charade

The Charade of Trump Backing Palestinian Self-Determination

by Stephen Lendman
For the past century, from UK Foreign Secretary Balfour saying "(h)is majesty's government views with favor the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people" to Trump, Palestinian rights never mattered.
They conflict with Anglo-Zionist interests. The White House saying the president will express support for Palestinian self-determination during his May 22 and 23 visit to Israel runs counter to longstanding US policy.
Western politicians consistently say one thing and do another. Nothing they say is credible. Trump perhaps is more one-sided for Israel than any previous US president.
His ambassador to Israel David Friedman, chief international negotiator Jason Greenblat, and son-in-law/chief advisor Jared Kushner are Zionist zealots - dismissive of Palestinian rights.
In an effort to launch another futile round of peace talks, Trump logically would publicly express support for what he, practically the entire Congress, and Israel reject. And if they forget, AIPAC will remind them.
Public pronouncements and policies usually differ sharply. Obama was a serial liar, entirely untrustworthy. Trump appears no better, called unpredictable for contradicting himself, making it unclear at times what he believes.
On Friday, National Security Advisor HR McMaster said his Middle East trip will promote Israeli/Palestinian peace talks, along with affirming his "unshakable" bond with the Jewish state. The latter comment says it all.
Throughout Israel's history since 1948, one US president alone forthrightly supported Palestinian rights while opposing Israel's nuclear weapons program - John F. Kennedy. On the right side of vital issues cost him his life.
Israel has powerful friends in Washington. Palestinians are political orphans. The only acceptable deal for Republicans, Democrats, the Trump administration, Netanyahu and his hardline regime is Palestinian capitulation to their demands.
The only type self-determination they'll permit is an isolated, cantoned Palestinian state surrounded by hostile settlements.
The only certainty ahead is Palestinians will be no closer to liberation by negotiating with anyone in Washington and Israel. Resistance alone may achieve what's virtually impossible any other way.
Ignore high-minded rhetoric from US and Israeli officials. Follow real-time events as they unfold.
For an entire century, Palestinian rights never mattered. They don't now with Trump and Netanyahu heading their respective governments.

Codified racism

Israel's Draft Nation-State Law Codifies Racism

Israel's Draft Nation-State Law Codifies Racism
by Stephen Lendman
The 1917 Balfour Declaration is its antecedent - "establish(ing) in Palestine a national home for the Jewish people," at the expense of indigenous Arabs as things turned out.
In May 1948, the concept was adopted in the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel. Knesset 1950 legislation granted every Jew "the right to come to this country as an oleh" - in 1970 modified to include non-Jews with a Jewish grandparent and their spouses.
The notion of a nation affording rights to its favored population at the expense of others is what apartheid is all about. Arabs aren't welcome or wanted in Israel except as servants of Jews.
The notion of a Jewish state contradicts democratic governance. Institutionalized racism harms Israeli Arab citizens, 20% of the population. Occupied Palestinians have no rights whatever, horrifically oppressed, struggling to survive.
In 2011, legislation was introduced to enshrine Israel's definition of a Jewish state into Basic Law. No constitution exists. Basic Laws substitute.
At the time, Netanyahu said the state lacked "adequate expression" of Israel's "existence as the nation-state of the Jewish people" in its Basic Laws.
Then-attorney general Yehuda Weinstein called it "very problematic…that the government supports proposals that raise serious problems," adding:
Draft legislation makes "significant changes (to) the founding principles of constitutional law as anchored in the Declaration of Independence and in the Basic Laws of the Knesset, which can" subvert democratic principles.
The measure went nowhere at the time, resurfacing in November 2014. Extremist cabinet ministers voted to draft a New Basic Law for consideration, saying:"(D)efining the identity of the State of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people, and to anchor the values of the state of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state in the spirit of the principles of the Declaration of the Independence."
Proposed legislation will declare "the right to express national self-determination within the State of Israel only to the Jewish people."
Netanyahu outrageously claimed the law affirmed Israel's democratic status - what never existed from inception to today.
Nation-state of the Jewish people failed to become Basic Law. Extremist Knesset members are trying again.
During a Sunday ministerial meeting, they approved a revised version of earlier draft legislation, declaring the "State of Israel is the national home of the Jewish people."
Israel's Justice Ministry will review it. If passed on for Knesset consideration, it must pass several readings to become law, perhaps taking months if successful.
Palestinians call legislation designating Israel a nation-state for Jews a huge obstacle preventing peace.
Its draft language declares the "right to self-determination…unique to the Jewish people," codifying discrimination against Arab citizens if it's enacted into Basic Law, making Israel more of a pariah state than already.
Hebrew alone is designated the official language. Arab MK Ayman Odeh sharply criticized the measure, calling it "tyranny by the majority, and legally turns us into second-class citizens."
Moderate Israeli MKs argue a nation-state bill is unnecessary. The 1948 Declaration of Independence already proclaimed a Jewish state.
Enacting it as Basic Law hardens discrimination against Arab citizens.
Separately, extremist ministers Ayelet ("little snakes") Shaked and Yariv Levin want Israeli law imposed on West Bank governance.
Their intent is clear, wanting Green Line separation erased, the West Bank incrementally annexed with Jerusalem as Israel's exclusive capital, Occupied Palestinians denied all rights, a state of conflict perpetuated, resolution off the table.
As long as Zionist zealots, fascists and religious fundamentalists run Israel, Palestinians will be persecuted, exploited and brutalized. Neighboring states and other regional ones won't be safe.

Written by Stephen Lendman Date: 05-01-2017 Subject: Israel - PalestineIsrael Commemorates Its Theft of Palestineby Stephen LendmanIsrael is a warrior state, a serial aggressor, a regional and global menace - unaccountable for decades of high crimes against peace.Its creation and existence cost countless Palestinian lives lost, hundreds of thousands imprisoned for political reasons, and daily illegal occupation viciousness.On Sunday, Israel commemorated its annual Memorial Day, remembering its dead soldiers, ignoring the Palestinian Nakba, an unending catastrophe for its people."A cloud of sadness surrounds the State of Israel today and always envelops the families, the parents, the children, the widows, the spouses, the brothers and the sisters," Netanyahu ranted, ignoring the harm Israeli forces inflicted on Palestinians and other regional Arabs."Today we are marking the mutual responsibility and shared fate that binds all segments of the people with the bereaved family. That is the genuine and to a great extent the unique source of the State of Israel, of our strength, a unique source of strength," Netanyahu added."We stand as a fortified wall facing our enemies. We do not demonstrate weakness. We do not allow our weapon to drop from our hands." "We know that this is the only way for us to repel those plotting (against us), who refuse to become reconciled with our existence, and it is only this way that we will achieve peace with those of our neighbors who want peace. At the same time… we maintain our humanity."Fact: A "cloud of sadness surrounds" the victims of Israeli viciousness.Fact: Israel's only enemies are ones it invents, furthering its agenda to redraw the Middle East map, wanting all regional rivals eliminated.Fact: No nations plot against Israel. None threaten its security and existence.Fact: Israel prioritizes endless regional wars and instability. Peace is anathema to its ruthless agenda. Fact: As long as the US/Israeli axis exists, no one is safe anywhere.While Israel remembers its lost soldiers, Palestinians mourn decades of horrors they committed, continuing daily.

JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump solemnly placed a note in the ancient stones of Jerusalem's Western Wall on Monday, sending a signal of solidarity to an ally he's pushing to work harder toward peace with the Palestinians. But his historic gesture— and his enthusiastic embrace of Israel's leader — were shadowed even here by reminders of Trump's tumult back home

May 22, 2017
In this second stop on his maiden foreign trip, Trump unexpectedly offered a new defense of his disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats in a recent Oval Office meeting. Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he argued he never mentioned Israel, the source of the classified intelligence, according to various officials — something he has not been accused of doing.
"I never mentioned the word or the name Israel," he told reporters. "So you have another story wrong." The moment was abrupt interruption of an otherwise warm and smooth welcome for Trump to the Holy Land. After years of butting heads with Trump's predecessor, Netanyahu celebrated a new American president's arrival as a moment of hope in the stalled peace talks between Israel and Palestinians. Trump, arriving from Saudi Arabia, declared he saw the possibility of new alignment of Muslim nations and Israel against a shared foe — Iran.
"There is a growing realization among your Arab neighbors that they have common cause with you in the threat posed by Iran," he said, at a welcome meeting with President Rueven Rivlin. The White House has said it doesn't expect any sort of breakthrough on the peace process on this trip. But Trump's unconventional approach to diplomacy has raised hopes that he may be well positioned to jumpstart talks bogged down by entrenched interests and ancient enmity.
Welcoming Trump, Netanyahu said, "I also look forward to working closely with you to advance peace in our region, because you have noted so succinctly that common dangers are turning former enemies into partners."
"It won't be simple," Netanyahu said. "But for the first time in many years — and, Mr. President, for the first time in my lifetime — I see a real hope for change." Trump is to travel Tuesday to Bethlehem to visit with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank. He'll later to lay a wreath at the Yad Vashem, a Holocaust memorial, and deliver a speech at the Israeli Museum.
Trump's visit was laden with religious symbolism. He toured the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which by Christian tradition is where Jesus was crucified and the location of his tomb. Wearing black skull cap, he became the first sitting president to visit the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City, the most holy site at which Jews can pray.
Trump was joined by first lady Melania Trump, his son-in-law Jared Kushner and daughter Ivanka Trump. The family was separated by gender. The president and Kushner visited one side, while the first daughter and first lady visited a portion of the site reserved for women. Trump approached alone and placed his hand on the stone.
The visit raised questions about whether the U.S. would indicate the site is Israeli territory. The U.S. has never recognized Israeli sovereignty over parts of the Old City seized in the 1967 war. The White House struggled to answer the question. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley declared the site part of Israel, while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Monday dodged.
"The wall is part of Jerusalem," he said, declaring only an undeniable fact accepted by all sides. Trump never commented. The president did step into another fraught subject: his recent disclosure of classified information to Russian diplomats, seemingly violating an intelligence-sharing agreement with Israel.
Netanyahu played it down, saying that U.S.-Israeli intelligence cooperation is "terrific" while attempting to dismiss concerns that the incident violated a confidentiality agreement. But it was another stark reminder for the president that his troubles at home, including the investigation of his ties to Russia and his firing of FBI Director James Comey, have followed him across the ocean on his multi-nation journey.
Gulf Arab countries long have been suspicious about Iran, and the Obama administration's nuclear negotiations furthered their worries about Iran's regional intentions. Trump is seeking to ease concerns that his policies won't be as beneficial to Israel as once believed. He has taken a tougher line on settlements than Israeli officials had expected, urging restraint though not calling for a full halt to construction. Trump has also retreated from a campaign pledge to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, bending to the same diplomatic and security concerns as other presidents who have made similar promises.
Associated Press writers Josef Federman in Jerusalem, Jon Gambrell in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and Darlene Superville, Vivian Salama and Ken Thomas in Washington contributed to this report.
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